Movie Review

Imagine if you could film your dreams. Well, Surrealist Movement artists Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali tried to give the subconscious form in 1929 when they made UN CHIEN ANDALOU (means “The Andalusian Dog”). If you are looking for a straightforward narrative, you will be hard-pressed to find it here. Like the human subconscious, this film is filled with seemingly disparate images crashing together in ways that are still jarring decades later. Maybe you heard about this film before as the one where a woman’s eyeball gets sliced open, or perhaps you heard about the ants crawling all over a man’s hand, the woman getting run over, or the dead burros in the pianos. Provocateurs Bunuel and Dali not only disrupted conventional notions of time and space to intentionally shock viewers, but imbued their images with a seductive form of violence. You are repulsed, but you can’t look away. Death and desire seem to dance in every scene.
Bunuel later said, “Historically the film represents a violent reaction against what in those days was called ‘avant-garde,’ which was aimed exclusively at artistic sensibility and the audience’s reason.” Whether they we successful or not in that aim can be debated today, but it is clear that this film has a unique and important place in the history of cinema – Marie.

This movie and other great classics are available at the Morton College Library. All movie rentals are free with a Morton Library Card!

Movie Review

The Cabinet of Dr. WHAT?!

You may not have heard about this one before. Nevertheless, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, directed by Robert Wiene and released in 1919, is a classic horror film that is sure to thrill you.
A traveling carnival comes to a small town in Northern Germany. With it, a dark and sinister hypnotist who ” bears a strange and mysterious influence over a somnambulist.” The somnambulist, or sleepwalker, Cesare, does the hypnotist’s evil bidding. There’s a love triangle of sorts, a woman gets kidnapped, people die, Cesare lumbers and slumbers, things are not what they seem to be . . . The film offers all of the tropes of modern day thrillers. The highly stylized set, a marvel of German Expressionism, creates the perfect backdrop for this disturbing tale of love, murder, and insanity- Marie.

This movie and other great classics are available at the Morton College Library. All movie rentals are free with a Morton Library Card!

Movie Review

Seriously, we doubt we have to tell you that Marty McFly, via his middle-aged mad scientist pal Dr. Emmett Brown, (a typical relation for a 1980s high schooler, by the way) accidentally travels back to 1955 in a car. While there, McFly’s adventures romp through the early years of Hill Valley, California as he tries to bring justice to his family and community without disturbing the past (and hence, the future!). Very fun…considering both the racist and anti-racist moments -Rob.

This movie and other great classics are available at the Morton College Library. All movie rentals are free with a Morton Library Card!